Sometimes when it’s a slow news day you end up actually reading the articles hidden all the way down at the bottom of MSNBC. There you will find the travel section. Don’t get me wrong, I like travel, in fact a tropical vacation is something I wouldn’t mind going on right about now. These articles don’t lack the quality of any of the other higher page articles; I just rarely get all the way down to reading the travel section. This article about Ryanair just amuses me.
I think it is also case and point why PR/ spokespeople, and talking points are important. Nothing like having the CEO say you’re airline might start charging passengers to use the bathroom, and then having to go back and have the spokesperson say the CEO often makes things up at will. That’s probably not great company practice, and I wouldn’t relish having the job of that PR/spokesperson and having to say, “Oh no, that’s not really happening, our CEO just makes things up at the spur of the moment and reports it to the media.” However, the spokesperson did continue to provide the info that the airline has actually discussed such new revenue making maneuvers, but there were no immediate plans to introduce them.
First, luggage charges, having to pay for a pillow, a blanket, a snack, if they even exist anymore, and now you might even have to pay to use the bathroom. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to this, but we might all want to start giving some attention to that overly chatty seat neighbor that we’ve all experienced. You never know when you might need to borrow some change in order to do your business, or it could be a long flight with your legs crossed.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Mass Transit
Check out the link for this Ad Freak post to see a couple of great ads in support of mass transit via Belgian agency Duval Guillaume. The penguins version is my favorite of the two. I'm all for mass transit, especially here in Bean Town where the general population lacks any sort of driving skill. While I don't encounter many killer whales on my trip to and from work, there are those occasional riding-the-T-during-rush-hour-novices who always need a little push to tap into the crowd mentality of squeezing just one more rider on to complete the tin can full of sardines effect... The T makes me miss the Metro a little more every day.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Bit by the Repackaging Bug
PepsiCo has caught it. Caught what? The repackaging/branding bug. First the Pepsi logo got it's own overhaul. Have you seen any of the leaked documentation with the rationalizations for the new logo design? Check it out here with Ad Freak. It's a little out there.
Then there was the redesign of the Tropicana packaging. This turned out to be not so successful with the loyal consumers. (See last post.)
And now Frito-Lay, a division of PepsiCo, is redesigning the packaging of their baked snacks. Read more here, NY Times. Everything needs to be spruced up now and again, and it's a great idea to target women with these baked snacks, since they are the main consumers.
In illustration of this, my favorite sorority sisters in college were 100% obsessed with Baked Cheetos. We're talking hit every grocery store in town to find them when the local Kroger was out kind of obsessed. They craved them non-stop and always seemed to be talking about Baked Cheetos. Something tells me the male population doesn't discuss their obsession with Baked Cheetos while at a bar sucking down a few rails.
While I think the packaging, looks pretty attractive, I'm a little curious on the cartoon women that will be adorning the print and TV ads. Personally, female cartoon figures aren't going to entice me to buy a product and I don't know if they are going to cut through all of the clutter around me to grab my attention. Not to mention they remind me of the little Red Bull gives you wings guy.
Back to the packaging itself, it's pretty visually pleasing, at least in the little photo in the NY Times article. I like that they are using neutral colors that can be related to nature, which I think ties in 'the better for you than regular potato chips and related snacks' idea. Not to mention, the bright yellow of the old packaging was a little harsh on the eyes, but it did standout on the shelf.
I'm finding the neuromarketing concept, used by Juniper Park very fascinating. I think it's a pretty interesting idea to look into the differences between women's and men's brains to adjust marketing tactics if you're going to specifically be targeting one segment over the other. This is definitely a topic I want to learn more about.
May this redesign fair better than that of Tropicana among those ever so important loyal consumers.
Then there was the redesign of the Tropicana packaging. This turned out to be not so successful with the loyal consumers. (See last post.)
And now Frito-Lay, a division of PepsiCo, is redesigning the packaging of their baked snacks. Read more here, NY Times. Everything needs to be spruced up now and again, and it's a great idea to target women with these baked snacks, since they are the main consumers.
In illustration of this, my favorite sorority sisters in college were 100% obsessed with Baked Cheetos. We're talking hit every grocery store in town to find them when the local Kroger was out kind of obsessed. They craved them non-stop and always seemed to be talking about Baked Cheetos. Something tells me the male population doesn't discuss their obsession with Baked Cheetos while at a bar sucking down a few rails.
While I think the packaging, looks pretty attractive, I'm a little curious on the cartoon women that will be adorning the print and TV ads. Personally, female cartoon figures aren't going to entice me to buy a product and I don't know if they are going to cut through all of the clutter around me to grab my attention. Not to mention they remind me of the little Red Bull gives you wings guy.
Back to the packaging itself, it's pretty visually pleasing, at least in the little photo in the NY Times article. I like that they are using neutral colors that can be related to nature, which I think ties in 'the better for you than regular potato chips and related snacks' idea. Not to mention, the bright yellow of the old packaging was a little harsh on the eyes, but it did standout on the shelf.
I'm finding the neuromarketing concept, used by Juniper Park very fascinating. I think it's a pretty interesting idea to look into the differences between women's and men's brains to adjust marketing tactics if you're going to specifically be targeting one segment over the other. This is definitely a topic I want to learn more about.
May this redesign fair better than that of Tropicana among those ever so important loyal consumers.
Monday, February 23, 2009
The Power of OJ
Now don't get me wrong, I appreciate marketing, branding, and packaging, etc, just as much as any marketer, but I just don't get all of the fuss over the Tropicana packaging redesign. Now if you live in the dark, never go grocery shopping, or just pay no attention to all of these marketing related things that infiltrate us practically every minute of every day, take a read with this Brand Week article to get the redesign scoop.
Not that I'm saying that the new packaging, via Arnell Group, is anything mind-blowingly incredible (what is these days?), but when I take a look back at the old packaging, I can't help to think that it's busy and pretty ugly. And the whole jabbing the straw in the orange, isn't that a little tired these days? Those commercials stand out in my mind as ones that seemingly frustrated me to no end as a kid. I knew that if I were to go get an orange out of the fridge, and jab a straw into it, this is all assuming there is a straw sharp enough to pierce through the skin and pith of an orange, the juice would never flow up the straw no matter how hard I tried.
A lot of articles and consumers have bashed the redesign, I however kind of like it. While a lot of consumers called the the cartons generic looking and resembling "store brands" like that's something negative, I can't honestly think of a generic orange juice, or what the carton of one looks like. I found the look of the new Tropicana packaging quite powerful all lined up on the shelf at my local Shaws. The simplicity of design set it apart from the cluttered packages of the other brands. While I can't attest to the design making it difficult to tell what type of orange juice, pulp, no pulp, heavy pulp, etc, was in the carton, this apparently garnered some of the complaining. My suggestion to all of those consumers, is to take a little more time on the oj aisle, we're all moving too fast from one place to the next anyway!
I know it's important to please the consumer, especially your most loyal consumers, since apparently they complain enough to encourage a revert to the old packaging (check out this NY Times article), but isn't it what's inside the packaging that these so called loyal consumers should be most concerned about. The actual product didn't change, it was simply a package redesign, yes it looks different, but sometimes that's a good thing! While PepsiCo decided the feedback was bad enough to revert back to the old style, hey, it got a whole lot of people talking about Tropicana, and a little buzz, even if it's not necessarily the best, is still pretty good, right? (And don't worry, that cut little orange shaped cap is all that will remain to remind loyal Tropicana drinkers of this little flub up.
Now what I'm taking away from this PepsiCo Tropicana redesign flop, is that one, personally I think PepsiCo is throwing in the towel too early, it's been maybe two months, give people some time to adjust. Two, if consumers are really going to switch oj brands just because they find the packaging not as visually pleasing, then were they really loyal to begin with? Three, where was the market research questioning oj drinkers on their attachment, likes/dislikes of the packaging? PepsiCo could have save some major money here. Now the whole deciphering the 'type' of oj in the Tropicana carton, that's a different story, I see how that could be irritating, a no pulper hates having to chew their morning cup of oj, but one that could probably be easily solved with different colored/larger fonts, etc.
The power of the consumer is pretty amazing. Who knew so many people cared so passionately about the looks of their oj carton? Just think of the uprising that would have happened had they tried to improve the actual product and failed.
Not that I'm saying that the new packaging, via Arnell Group, is anything mind-blowingly incredible (what is these days?), but when I take a look back at the old packaging, I can't help to think that it's busy and pretty ugly. And the whole jabbing the straw in the orange, isn't that a little tired these days? Those commercials stand out in my mind as ones that seemingly frustrated me to no end as a kid. I knew that if I were to go get an orange out of the fridge, and jab a straw into it, this is all assuming there is a straw sharp enough to pierce through the skin and pith of an orange, the juice would never flow up the straw no matter how hard I tried.
A lot of articles and consumers have bashed the redesign, I however kind of like it. While a lot of consumers called the the cartons generic looking and resembling "store brands" like that's something negative, I can't honestly think of a generic orange juice, or what the carton of one looks like. I found the look of the new Tropicana packaging quite powerful all lined up on the shelf at my local Shaws. The simplicity of design set it apart from the cluttered packages of the other brands. While I can't attest to the design making it difficult to tell what type of orange juice, pulp, no pulp, heavy pulp, etc, was in the carton, this apparently garnered some of the complaining. My suggestion to all of those consumers, is to take a little more time on the oj aisle, we're all moving too fast from one place to the next anyway!
I know it's important to please the consumer, especially your most loyal consumers, since apparently they complain enough to encourage a revert to the old packaging (check out this NY Times article), but isn't it what's inside the packaging that these so called loyal consumers should be most concerned about. The actual product didn't change, it was simply a package redesign, yes it looks different, but sometimes that's a good thing! While PepsiCo decided the feedback was bad enough to revert back to the old style, hey, it got a whole lot of people talking about Tropicana, and a little buzz, even if it's not necessarily the best, is still pretty good, right? (And don't worry, that cut little orange shaped cap is all that will remain to remind loyal Tropicana drinkers of this little flub up.
Now what I'm taking away from this PepsiCo Tropicana redesign flop, is that one, personally I think PepsiCo is throwing in the towel too early, it's been maybe two months, give people some time to adjust. Two, if consumers are really going to switch oj brands just because they find the packaging not as visually pleasing, then were they really loyal to begin with? Three, where was the market research questioning oj drinkers on their attachment, likes/dislikes of the packaging? PepsiCo could have save some major money here. Now the whole deciphering the 'type' of oj in the Tropicana carton, that's a different story, I see how that could be irritating, a no pulper hates having to chew their morning cup of oj, but one that could probably be easily solved with different colored/larger fonts, etc.
The power of the consumer is pretty amazing. Who knew so many people cared so passionately about the looks of their oj carton? Just think of the uprising that would have happened had they tried to improve the actual product and failed.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Brilliant
This is definitely one of those 'Why didn't I think of that?' marketing efforts. Hats off to JetBlue and their Welcome Bigwigs campaign. (My favorite airline and the only one that I will fly even if I have to pay more and provided it's going my direction of course. How's that for brand loyalty?) Back to the important stuff here, their latest marketing effort takes advantage of the current economic climate, a brave marketing move, and takes aim at all of those struggling companies and their executives flying on corporate jets.
Now it's a little cheeky, even a little risky, and I'm sure not everyone gets a huge kick out of it, but they make light of the reality of the situation by adding a little humor, and well, truthfully it's pretty brilliant. Why not market your airline as the travel solution for the corporate jet issue, point out all of your product differentiators, and have a little fun while doing it. Maybe it's the JetBlue brand loyalty that I already have, but if I were a business exec needing to travel, I'd say the smart thing to do would be to check out JetBlue and leave that corporate jet parked in the hangar.
I first read about JetBlue's new effort here on Ad Week: JetBlue Welcomes High Flyers
Now it's a little cheeky, even a little risky, and I'm sure not everyone gets a huge kick out of it, but they make light of the reality of the situation by adding a little humor, and well, truthfully it's pretty brilliant. Why not market your airline as the travel solution for the corporate jet issue, point out all of your product differentiators, and have a little fun while doing it. Maybe it's the JetBlue brand loyalty that I already have, but if I were a business exec needing to travel, I'd say the smart thing to do would be to check out JetBlue and leave that corporate jet parked in the hangar.
I first read about JetBlue's new effort here on Ad Week: JetBlue Welcomes High Flyers
Here goes nothing
I've decided to start a blog. Actually it's my second blog, but the other was for a grad school class, so this is my foray into blogging about things that interest me and aren't assigned topics. With a blog title like Things That Make Me Go Hmm, I'm hoping to hit on all of the advertising, public relations, and marketing things that really spark my interest, make me go hmm (either in the 'is that really a good idea sense?', or the 'why didn't I think of that?' sense), and probably a few random things in between.
Here's to blogging and here goes nothing!
Here's to blogging and here goes nothing!
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